(Disclosure: Global Trade Watch has no preference among the candidates.)

Maybe this sounds like a bad joke, but what do Austan Goolsbee, Barack Obama's economic advisor, Gary Gensler (Clinton campaign) Kevin Hassett (McCain) and Leo Hindery (Edwards) have in common? (hint: it's not exhaustion from the campaign trail or a common love for walks on the beach...as far as I know)

They all want CHANGES TO OUR TRADE POLICY!!

Today at the New America Foundation, 2008 presidential campaign advisors discussed their visions for the economy in an Obama/Clinton/McCain/Edwards administration.

When asked about trade, here are the highlights (loosely transcribed or listen to the MP3 of the full event - fast forward to about a quarter way thru for these answers - or video below)

Gary Gensler (HILLARY CLINTON): "Sen. Clinton is
very much an internationalist. We're all part of the global world. Whatever
everyone's definition is of globalization is, it's here and part of the fabric
of the world and what we're dealing with. On trade though she has stated and
believes in smart trade, but it's not really worked for all Americans. Listening
to people, to middle income Americans we should look at every trade agreement
and make sure it's working for America. This administration has brought only 16
enforcement actions- the same as Bill Clinton brought in one year. We need to add enforcement, make
sure we address labor and environmental standards as was the case with Peru - that it
was equally enforceable alongside the commercial agreements, that we assess
where we are in all these trade agreements at least every 3 years after they're
entered into and every 5 years thereafter. Just take a moment to look at how
they're working for Americans. And move forward with smart trade to make sure it
works for Americans."

Austan Goolsbee (BARACK OBAMA): "I'm a University of Chicago
economist and no one is ever going to be more in favor of open markets and free
trade than an economist, so you would presume I'd be for anything that has the
words 'free trade agreement' in it and all I'll tell you is this: I do believe
there's no one more in favor of open markets than me and that said, if you look
at a free trade agreement - if you have never read a free trade agreement I
encourage you to go read it - because it is as close to the economists' case for
free trade as our tax code is to the economists' case for the ideal tax system.
If you look at these 900-page agreements, they're two pages of what every
economist says "yeah, that's great" - opening tarriffs - and then 898 pages of
loopholes. It looks just like the tax code - of protect this company and make
sure they're getting their money and these investor protections - and so I think
that the case for open markets is different than what you think about this, that
or the 146 trade agreements that were signed in the 1990s. And Obama has been
trying to get us away from what I call the false choice that either you're for
every single thing the administration has done or else you're a protectionist
and you're against America's role in the international economy, but neither of
those is true. There are perfectly grounded things oriented around opening
markets and expanding American presence in the world that I think we can have
pretty general consensus on and I agree with Garry - one thing that we should
have general consensus on is if a country signs an agreement with the United
States that says they're gonna do a, b and c, that they should do it. If they
don't do it, we should pursue the means in the WTO or otherwise that makes sure
everybody abides by the agreements that they sign, so it strikes me that there is
common ground here."

Kevin Hassett (JOHN MCCAIN): "I think that the
trade area is one where you need to be very very careful allowing thoughts like
smart trade to leak in, because there's so many politically important interests
that are opposed to free trade and the fact is that free trade benefits millions
and millions of Americans a little bit at a time and harms specific big money
interests like a textile mills and a lot of other examples - like a sugar company
in a very very focused way and so there are all of these parochial interests
opposed to trade that can be very politically important, and so Sen. McCain is an
unabashed free trader, and I think he agrees with Austan's analysis that it would
be better if our free trade agreements moved towards being a couple of pages
rather than 900, but I've found during this campaign the discussion of trade the
most disturbing for me as an economist. I thought the part of President
Clinton's record that I respected the most was his trade record and very
aggressive pursuit of free trade, and it seems to me that all the Democratic candidates
but especially Mrs. Clinton have kind of apologized for that record when the
right thing to do for all of the little people - the guys out there who benefit
from free trade - is to celebrate it."

Comments

i like this part of the post:". Just take a moment to look at how they're working for Americans. And move forward with smart trade to make sure it works for Americans."" is very good... is very important this info thanks!!

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Eyes on Trade is a blog by the staff of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (GTW) division. GTW aims to promote democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor "free trade." Eyes on Trade is a space for interested parties to share information about globalization and trade issues, and in particular for us to share our watchdogging insights with you! GTW director Lori Wallach's initial post explains it all.

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